Today's topic for discussion is How to Find a Therapist.

If you are suffering from depression, bipolar, post traumatic stress disorder, or any other mental illness that is affecting your ability to function effectively in your day to day life, you may want to find a therapist who deals specifically with these problems. It will be easier to deal with accumulating, hoarding, and cluttering after you have confronted and begun to deal with underlying mental health issues. Your local mental health association can help you find a professional.
If you are just needing someone to help you with hoarding, go to the Resources section of this website and click on the picture of your state to see if there is anyone in your area who specializes in and has had experience working with hoarding behaviors.
If there is not, contact your local mental health association to find a cognitive behaviorist. Therapists who specialize in OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) are usually trained in this method. You can contact NAMI, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill www.nami.org to locate mental health professionals in your area.

It has been proven that the most effective form of treatment for hoarding disorders is Cognitive Behavior Therapy.
What is CBT?
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of treatment that focuses on examining the relationships between thoughts, feelings and behaviors. By exploring patterns of thinking that lead to self-destructive actions and the beliefs that direct these thoughts, people with mental illness can modify their patterns of thinking to improve coping. CBT is a type of psychotherapy that is different from traditional psychodynamic psychotherapy in that the therapist and the patient will actively work together to help the patient recover from their mental illness. People who seek CBT can expect their therapist to be problem-focused, and goal-directed in addressing the challenging symptoms of mental illnesses. Because CBT is an active intervention, one can also expect to do homework or practice outside of sessions.
(reprinted from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill www.nami.org)

You may be saying "But I'm not mentally ill. I have a job, a family, and I am doing just fine. I just have this little hoarding problem."

Mental wellness is a spectrum. We all fall somewhere on the spectrum at some point. And this point changes depending on circumstances and stresses in our lives. If "this little hoarding problem" is causing problems in your relationships and your quality of life, you need to seek some help.

Excellent post Barb :D

I have decided that in light of my experience in working with the mental health system in regards to my hoarding, I am going to post regularly on this thread.

Today's Topic: Should I seek help from a mental health counselor?

Authors David F. Tolin, Randy O. Frost, and Gail Steketee write in their book Buried Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving, and Hoarding:

"There's no hard and fast rule here. Seeking professional help is a very personal decision, and different people have different criteria for making that decision. Out criteria (which might differ from yours) are that you should consider consulting a professional (a) if the problem seems too overwhelming to manage on your own or with the help of friends or family: (b) if the strategies in this book don't seem to help; or (c) if other mental health concerns such as anxiety or depression seem to be getting in the way of beating the hoarding problem."

If what you are doing is working, keep at it. You will get where you want to be one step at a time. If your strategies are not working, and you are paralyzed, spinning your wheels by just relocating items, or not progressing at the rate you would like, you might want to consider asking for help.

If you are the friend or family member of a hoarder, please be aware that you cannot force your loved one to get counseling. You can learn more about this condition, you can learn to be supportive in the other person's efforts to change, but you cannot change them. You may want to seek help for yourself. Talking about your frustrations and anger with a third objective party can help you accept your limitations and to make good decisions for yourself despite what the other person chooses to do. Do what you need to do to take care of you.

(You can download a free sample of the book Buried Treasures from Amazon Kindle. This is an excellent resource for both hoarders and their families.)

Thank you Susan.

I returned the book to the library and I appreciate the link.

On pages 61 and 62 of her book, Dr Zasio has a list of 10 least helpful and 10 most helpful things to say to a hoarder.

I'm wondering if this idea would be useful?
That you ask her for permission to use those two lists on your site and (assuming yes) post them as a sticky post at the top of this thread.

If those were there, I wonder if people could use an "imaginary detractor" and "imaginary friend" approach to giving themselves some help?
(one of my approaches to challenges as they present themselves is to try to imagine what you or Brooks Palmer would tell me about my situation.)

I am seeing posts where people are beating up on themselves and wonder if seeing a common negative comment list would help them to realize they are "not alone" and remind them that they are hurting themselves with the negative comments. And then in being reminded of that, as they scan a list of positive things, something might leap out that speaks to the challenge of the day and they can pretend like that is actually being spoken to them by a friend and can carry that forward to work with the challenge of the day.

Those two lists, accompanied by another list of "the ten best questions to ask about an item when you are holding it your hand" stuck at the top of a thread somewhere where they are easily accessible, are things that would be useful to me. The thing I don't know is whether those are things that would be broadly useful. That's your experience and call. (Thanks for taking the time to read all that.)

How to talk with a counselor>:

Print out the comic strips Karl posted in quote of the day and take them with you to your next appointment.

I would be happy to start a new topic/thread you guys. If you are willing to speak openly, we can even invite some of the therapists to come and read it to learn why people have such a hard time finding help.
Perhaps this would spark a greater interest in therapists getting the training they truly need in order to help people?
Until that time, just remember that hoarding is typically caused by all of the underlying issues that so many people deal with, and therapists are trained in all of those subjects. The hoarding is just a result of the feelings caused by the underlying issues, along with some isolated hoarding tendencies.

So, I will start the topic, but what would you like me to title it? Let's do it, this will benefit everyone!

I think it's a great idea. I really like my therapist and she is helping me a great deal with my OCD but she does not have a background with hoarding. No one in her practice does.

I would like to start a new thread.
One of the hard parts of dealing with hoarding is going for help in dealing with grief, depression, addiction, obsessive compulsive tendencies, or other issues that accompany our hoarding behavior.
Some areas of the country have professionals who are experts in this field. Sadly, most areas do not have easy access to anyone who understands hoarding. I recently had a discussion with an intern from IU Medical school who is in her psychiatric rotation. This is not something their education covers.
For the past three years, I have been working with a counselor. She is invested in professional development so that she has the best tools to help her clients. But it has been up to me to teach her about hoarding. I have found the information on this site to be immensely helpful.
I would like for this thread to be open for comments from experts in the field including mental health professionals so that we can develop a guide called "How to talk to your mental health professional about your hoarding".
What do you all think?